I visited with a friend yesterday about the stories of Gideon & Samson (their stories are recorded in the Old Testament book of Judges).

Possessing polar-opposite personalities, their stories are as opposite as they are similar. In a nutshell, Gideon was a weak man that God made strong. While Samson was a strong man that God made weak.

The not-to-be-missed common denominator, though, is their weakness. Only when they were broken & weak could God truly use them. The great Bible teacher, A.W. Tozer, once said, “God cannot use a person greatly until He has first hurt them deeply.”

Paul, the author of most of the New Testament, put it this way: “But [God] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9, 10 NIV)

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